Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

Product Description

For peace of mind on the go, n?vi 255 leads the way with voice-prompted turn-by-turn and optional MSN Direct to get you there on time and keep you informed. It’s packed with millions of destinations and maps for North America or Europe. Like the rest of the compact n?vi 2×5-series, this portable navigator is priced right and ultra-easy to use.n?vi 255 comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps, including a hefty points of interest (POIs) database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. It even announces the name of exits and streets so you never have to take your eyes off the road. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and n?vi takes you there with turn-by-turn voice directions, 2-D or 3-D maps and and smooth map updates as you navigate. Its digital elevation maps show you shaded contours at higher zoom levels, giving you a big picture of the surrounding terrain. In addition, n?vi 255 accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs. With HotFix satellite prediction, n?vi calculates your position faster to get you there quicker.Like the rest of the n?vi 2×5-series, n?vi 255 sports a sleek, slim design and fits comfortably in your pocket or purse. Its rechargeable lithium-ion battery makes it convenient for navigation by car or foot. With its “Where Am I? ” emergency locator, you always know your location. Simply tap the screen to get your exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and fuel stations.eft feature. Enhance your travel experience with optional plug-in microSD cards such as Garmin Travel Guides for detailed data on attractions.

Product Features

4.3 Inch Auto Navigator with Anti Theft Feature

Voice Prompted Turn by Turn Directions

With HotFix, It Calculates Your Position Faster to Get You There Quicker

Editorial Review

The 255W features predictive technology that provides faster satellite lock, a redesigned screen with more information, terrain maps, and an exciting new photo navigation feature. The 255W adds complete maps for North America and Text-to-Speech, so you get turn by turn spoken directions with the real names of streets (e.g. “turn left in 50 feet at Nebraska Way”, rather than merely “turn left in 50 feet”). The 255W also offers a wide 4.3-inch (diagonal) screen that displays 70% more of the road around you.

The nüvi 2×5 models all sport the slim design that Garmin introduced with the 200-series last year, so they all fit comfortably in your pocket or purse, and a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that makes them convenient for navigation by car or foot.All of the models include useful travel tools like a JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more.

Important Product Information: This device features a “screen lock” feature. This is a standard feature on all nüvi 2×5 and 7×5 Garmin units. If you slide the “Power” key to the right, it will lock the screen and prevent any accidental touches. Once the screen lock feature is engaged, the screen will go black/gray after about 15 seconds to save power on the device. To unlock the screen, just slide the “Power” key to the center position. This feature is really targeted for “Pedestrian” mode so that a user can put the device in his or her pocket/purse and quickly unlock the screen instead of powering on/off continuously. For more information, see page 5 of the product manual.

Learn More

One of Garmin’s key product philosophies is to make extremely complex technology easy to use for anyone right out of the box, and perhaps nowhere is that better exemplified than in the user interface for Garmin’s portable navigation devices.

Garmin’s interface is a key to their success part of what makes their devices such a pleasure to use. Simple controls and sub-screens make it easy to enter or search for destinations and get data about your trip. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with turn-by-turn voice directions, 2-D or 3-D maps and smooth map updates as you navigate.

This year, Garmin has redesigned its interface to include much more useful information.

Old Interface

New Interface

Your GPS device locks onto transmissions from a dedicated network of Satellites in order to determine its position. Until the device gets a “lock” on three satellites, it can’t effectively navigate, so decreasing the time it takes for your device to get “satellite lock” is always a goal of GPS manufacturers. With Garmin’s new HotFix technology, your Garmin GPS remembers the position of all satellites it is tracking when you turn it off, and calculates their movements in order to predict where they should be the next time you turn it on. This gives the device an idea of where it should look for satellites, and dramatically decreases the time it takes for your Garmin to get its position and start navigating. HotFix can predict satellite positions for up to 3 days after the device was last turned off.

Using Garmin’s unique Web site — Garmin Connect Photos — users can choose from millions of geo-located photos provided by Google’s Panoramio photo sharing community and download them to the nüvi for a richer navigation experience using pictures as a guide.

Using Garmin’s unique Web site — Garmin Connect Photos — users can choose from millions of geo-located photos provided by Google’s Panoramio photo sharing community and download them to the nüvi for a richer navigation experience using pictures as a guide.

Choose from Panoramio’s collection of photos from around the world.

Easy to use interface displays photos on Google Maps.

Search for photos by location name or map area boundary.

Transfer photos directly from Garmin Connect to device with the Garmin Communicator.

tching to try out a new restaurant, or setting off on a road trip to locate the best toffee apples on the east coast? Now, it’s easy to search for locations on Google Maps or Mapquest, then transfer the addresses directly to your Garmin GPS navigator.

Hook up your Garmin to the computer via it’s USB port

Search for the location you want

Click the Send link in the info window for the address. That will bring up a popup “Send to” form.

Pick GPS, then pick Garmin and hit the “Send” button.

The address will instantly transfer to your Garmin device, The point will be saved as one of your favorites, and you can navigate to it or view it on a map just like with any other favorite.

The process does require a small plugin, which you can get at Garmin’s website at http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3739. You can send business addresses to your Garmin device from these countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

With an optional receiver, you can get alerts from TMC Clear Channel about traffic tie-ups and road construction that might lie ahead on your route. All you have to do is simply touch the screen to view traffic details and you’ll be ready to detour around any problem area. And if you end up missing a turn, or you’re forced into a detour that is not relayed through the traffic receiver, the nüvi’s sophisticated automatic routing will get you back on track in no time.

In most areas, TMC Clear Channel traffic broadcasts are continuous — there’s no waiting for scheduled traffic news updates or random alerts. Because traffic broadcasts are received via a “silent” FM data channel, you can still listen to music or news programming on your car radio without interference from incoming FM traffic data transmissions.

The super-bright, 4.3-inch (diagonal) touchscreen display gives is anti-glare for ease of viewing during the day and automatically changes its color profile for easy viewing at night or in dim light. It offers 2d or 3D perspective views.

The widescreen format gives you 70% more actual screen area than a 3.5-inch screen. Primarily this translates into a better view of the area through which you are driving. This is especially useful in showing you what parks, restaurants, ATM, gas stations, etc. are nearby, or in letting you know whether a detour is a good idea. Also, the device itself is larger, meaning controls on the screen are more widely spaced and somewhat easier to push.

Wider screen lets you see more of what’s around. Compare these actual size views of a 3-inch (diagonal) screen

and a 4.3-inch diagonal widescreen

Where Am I?

On any nüvi (including this one), you can just tap “Where Am I?” to find the closest hospitals, police stations, fuel stations, nearest address and intersection. Also see your exact latitude and longitude coordinates.

The nüvi comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps for all of North America, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, including a hefty POI database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with 2D or 3D maps and turn-by-turn voice directions. Garmin gets its map data from NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality mapping.

In addition, nüvi accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs

Navigation is just the beginning. The nüvi 2×5 models features travel tools including a JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more.

This device is compatible with optional content plug-ins available via microSD card, such as the Garmin Travel Guides and Garmin SaversGuide provide detailed data for attractions and information on nearby merchants offering discounts, so you can customize nüvi for your travel needs. For Accessory Map Cards and Travel Guides the Units Feature: a MicroSD Card Slot on the 3.5 inch Units, and an SD Card Slot on the 4.3 inch Units.

Garmin has also added the ability for customers to add custom points of interest (POI’s) from third parties such as school zones and safety cameras.